PLO official Hanan Ashrawi on Monday invited US Republican Newt Gingrich to visit Palestine as her guest, after the presidential candidate said the Palestinian people were "invented."

"I personally offer to host Mr. Gingrich," Ashrawi said in a statement.

In an interview Friday with the Jewish Channel, Gingrich said Palestinians were an "invented" people "who are in fact Arabs." On Saturday, he added: "These people are terrorists."

Ashrawi invited the presidential hopeful "to re-learn his history and come to Palestine to see for himself, not only the suffering the Palestinian people face on a daily basis due to the Israeli military occupation, but also to experience the rich culture and history of the Palestinian people"

She added: "it is unbelievable that Mr. Gingrich, who studied history at two outstanding American universities and even taught history, could make such a misguided comment, solely for the sake of political pandering."

She noted that Gingrich labeled Palestinians as terrorists "on the same day that we mourned the loss of a young Palestinian peacefully protesting the military occupation of his land."

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also urged Gingrich to open a history book.

"Even the most extremist settlers of Israel wouldn’t talk in such a ridiculous way," Fayyad told reporters on Saturday.

Such remarks would be better suited for a politician adhering to "a Nazi ideology, a source of suffering for humanity, and the Jews topped the list of victims” of that ideology, he added.